The Empowerment Of Women:
Searching
For Genuine Democracy
Among The Ashes Of Patriarchal Rhetoricby the Honourable Audrey McLaughlin
Canadian Member of Parliament -Former Leader of the New Democratic
Party of Canada

Delivered at the European Forum For Democracy And
Solidarity Conference: "Women In Central And Eastern Europe At The Threshold of
XXI Century"; Prague, Czech Republic, 18-20 April 1997.

A famous feminist activist from Canada, Nellie
McClung, while speaking on the right of women to the vote in the early 1920's,
tells the story about giving a speech on the importance of electing women. During
her speech, someone in the audience yelled out "If women were ever elected, the
Prime Minister would resign!" To which Ms. McClung replied, "That shows what a
purifying effect women would have on politics."

On all continents, the struggle for democracy
has been a long one and the even greater struggle for the involvement of women
has been longer. The word 'democracy' is defined in the dictionary as "government
by all the people, a form of society ignoring hereditary class distinctions and
tolerating minority views." But is that what the experience of democracy has been?
There is, to my knowledge, no legislative body in which women are represented
as half the population and the struggle for the right to vote has been a long
and difficult one. This is not surprising when we realize that democracy in ancient
Greece was defined to exclude women, slaves and foreigners. Early liberal democracy
was open only to those who held property. The right to vote in many countries
came only after the Second World War and in some countries the struggle continues.
It is not surprising, therefore, that women have not been a part of shaping democratic
institutions--in either their structure or their rules. With the franchise, women
have been invited in, as it were, to participate in a structure which is very
much like any culture. The political culture has its own language, its own customs,
in some cases its own dress code and traditions, and it is male.

One of the challenges for women is to not simply
try to fit into this system, but to look at how it can be changed to better reflect
the reality of the whole society. We have some great role models such as former
Prime Minister of Norway Gro Bruntland, however, the reality is that there are
not a lot of women in positions of power who can help to redefine concepts of
leadership and power. Some, like Margaret Thatcher, have attained power but have
done little to advance equality for women.

In my view, there is no genuine democracy unless
our political institutions are comprised of at least fifty percent women. Gender
equality is essential to true democracy. It would appear, however, that rather
than the number of women increasing in elected politics, it is decreasing. A recent
study of 179 parliaments by the Inter Parliamentary Union, located in Geneva,
found that women hold only 11.7 percent of all seats--down from the record 14.6
percent in 1988. Even though female literacy rates and income levels are increasing
in most of the developing world, women continue to hold fewer than 10 percent
of parliamentary seats in most of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and fewer than
2 percent in Arab states. There are also fewer women in the United States, the
United Kingdom and Canada being elected. Only the four Scandinavian countries
hold more than one third of parliamentary seats. Almost 90 percent of political
parties are led by men.

While some countries have attempted to apply
quotas to parliamentary seats (namely Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, North Korea,
Nepal and the Philippines), many parliamentary groups in the former Soviet Bloc
criticize quotas, arguing that in their countries such systems marginalized women
politically. In those countries struggling to change from a totalitarian system
to a democracy, the argument is sometimes used that equality is the second goal.
However, Gladys Mutuka of Zambia has put it well when she said: "One should not
buy the argument that democracy comes first, and thereafter, women's participation
and gender issues. In this case, women can remain marginalized for a long time."

The shift to a democratic system can be used
not to further equality, but to limit it. For example, I have often heard the
argument that having abandoned communism, it is now time to return to 'traditional
values'. What this too often means is that women are asked to assume a greater
role in child and elder care and that public services are reduced. It too often
means restricting abortion rights and generally gives the message that women should
assume a more passive role.

Extreme nationalism also tends to work against
women in glorifying war and male violence. Frequently women have been instrumental
in revolutionary movements only to find that after the revolution, they are expected
to return to servicing the needs of men.

I think that most of us can easily define the
problem. I would like to share with you a few ideas for how we might set out on
that road to genuine democracy.

There are a variety of ways in which women
contribute to a civil society: it may be through volunteer work in non-governmental
organizations, through their role in the work place and in the political field.
Perhaps before I talk about how we might facilitate greater involvement, I should
talk about why it is important for women to play a greater part in the decisions
made in our societies.

Firstly, the world has become increasingly
complex and interdependent and we can no longer afford to ignore the skills and
expertise of half of the world's population. Women certainly do not have all of
the answers, but as 50 percent of the population, we do at least have one half
of the answers. Secondly, in this globalized world, the skills demonstrated by
many women of seeking solutions rather than simply seeking power, are desperately
needed. Men and women do see the world through different eyes. Neither is better,
but we may define problems differently, and as the saying goes, 'whoever defines
the problem, defines the solution.'

Having said this, I must add that gender alone
will not bring about the equality we seek. We must seek those women and men who
truly believe in equality, for those women who do not or who deny the barriers
exist, very often do more harm than good to the cause of equality. And that is
why as a social democrat, I believe strongly that one's ideology is what ultimately
counts.

There is no doubt in my mind that empowering
women means a radical change in most societies. Therefore, the steps which we
take, hopefully, will include those men who share our goals. But I also know that
societal change is a long process and that it will not occur without a positive
role by the state.

One of the first steps is to work to develop
strong women's networks. In some cases, these may not be aligned politically,
but as groups of women who come together to advocate for a specific issue, for
example, divorce rights or the right to abortion. Although I find that the influence
of these women's groups is lessening in my own country, I do think that they have
resulted in positive change for women. In some cases, these organizations are
national and in other cases, regional. Some of you may have attended the Beijing
conference and there one could see the strong influence of such groups, particularly
at the non-governmental conference.

A second role that such groups might play is
that of providing forums which help women to develop leadership skills and to
gain confidence in their abilities to speak and be an advocate. My experience
has been that women are very supportive of each other and that these groups can
provide friendship, support and skills.

The role of labour unions can be very instrumental
in promoting women. I can only speak of the history of unions in my own country,
but in the last ten years, there has been a major change within unions towards
promoting gender equality. This has, however, not come about easily. Women within
the unions organized women's committees and women's conferences. Some unions are
now led by women and training in leadership skills, on sexual harassment and on
politics continues. Recognizing that equality is not just necessary in the workplace,
union negotiators have bargained for child care in the workplace and other family
policies which benefit both parents. Unions have also been politically active
in fighting for things such as public health care, child care, maternity benefits
and legislation protecting worker's rights.

In order to facilitate the inclusion of women
in political life, changes also must be made within political parties and within
electoral legislation itself. In Canada, for example, a proposal has been made
to limit the amount of money spent on nomination meetings for women seeking to
be a candidate for their party. It is also recommended that political parties
that elect more than 20 percent women would receive a tax rebate from the government.
In existing legislation we have very strict controls on what a candidate can spend
on an election and these spending limits are monitored. To me, it is a major flaw
in the system that in the United States, there are no spending limits and therefore
simply running for office can cost millions of dollars. This is not democratic,
as it eliminates many people from even considering politics and particularly discriminates
against women. There is a saying in the United States that the politicians are
'the best that money can buy.' This is said with some irony, but it is too true.
My point is that electoral legislation can make it easier for women or more difficult
and we must advocate for fair and reasonable rules.

In terms of political parties, the work of
Socialist International Women in promoting gender equality among member parties
has been outstanding. While we have not succeeded with all of the parties, the
policy is clear and social democratic and labour parties must be held accountable
to the standards adopted by Socialist International. Again, this did not happen
easily. It took a lot of work over a number of years and, of course, it continues.
I was interested that at our last Congress at the United Nations in New York,
virtually every male speaker spoke about the necessity of ensuring the equal participation
of women. Now, the challenge is to ensure that those fine words become fine deeds.

I will share with you briefly my experience
within my own party, the New Democratic Party of Canada, because I think that
it illustrates some of the points which I have been making. Firstly, the Women's
Committee has been a very strong advocate and for about 10 years, the party has
adopted the policy that all committees and party executives must be gender balanced
at the national and regional levels. In other words, women had to form one half
of the decision making within the party. This led to what might be called a cultural
change, because everyone had to always be assured that women were involved. I
was elected the leader of my party in 1989, the first woman leader of a federal
political party in Canada, indeed the first in North America. This was possible,
I think, because of our previous gender equality policy. In 1991, the party adopted
an affirmative action policy which stated that we would attempt to ensure that
50 percent of our candidates in elections were women. In 1995, when I stepped
down as leader, the party elected another woman as leader. Now, I don't suggest
that we have achieved everything which is needed, but the basic steps have been
taken and it would be very difficult for the party to return to past practices.
In Canada, where we have a parliamentary as opposed to a list system of politics,
it is essential that political parties adopt similar programs, however, to date,
only my party has such a specific program.

SIW has developed an excellent booklet on the
quota for women and one of our primary goals is to ensure that member parties
are attaining gender equality. Needless to say, there's still a lot of work to
do.

In closing, I believe that genuine democracy
has not been achieved until one half of the population is included in a meaningful
way. The challenge is huge, because one is not just talking about the structure
of politics, but the structure of family, of community and of society. Unfortunately,
even in my own country, women are still not taken as seriously as men. The globalized
economy has very often meant a shift away from public services to private and
this has meant that women are expected to take on even more responsibilities.
What has been called the 'triple burden' includes work outside the home, child
care and elder care.

As an internationalist, as all social democrats
are, I feel that our work together as women of the world is essential, as a social
democrat I believe that we will have reached true democracy when we speak, not
just of the globalized economy, but of the globalization of education, of health
and well being, the globalization of the equality between men and women, the globalization
of equality among races and religions, the globalization of respect for the earth
and the globalization of peace.

Conferences such as this one are very important
in promoting true democracy. I wish you well and look forward to working together.

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